10-K, 10-Q and 8-K: Finding Your Way Around SEC Filings

Suppose a summary card shows Apple's fiscal 2024 sales as $391.0 billion. Its annual filing shows 391,035. Do the numbers disagree?

The card is invented; the filing is real. Before calling either number wrong, check the period, the unit and the rounding. A number without those labels is only half the information.

Earlier lessons took you straight to Apple's report. Here, find it yourself and leave a trail someone else can check.

Choose the filing for your question

The SEC, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, regulates securities markets. EDGAR is its public filing database. These three forms cover US domestic reporting companies; some foreign companies listed in the US use different forms.

Companies file a 10-Q after each of the first three fiscal quarters; the 10-K completes the year. Unaudited does not mean unchecked: a 10-Q's interim statements require an independent accountant's review, which is narrower than an audit.

An earnings release gives the company's announcement. Even when attached to an 8-K, it does not replace the complete statements and notes in a 10-K or 10-Q. The release is usually “furnished” to the SEC, a different legal status from being “filed.” Sharing a database does not make the documents interchangeable.

Open Apple's dated annual report

Start with Apple's FY2024 filing index. Open aapl-20240928.htm in the 10-K row. The index identifies Apple Inc., CIK 0000320193. A Central Index Key (CIK) identifies the filer; an accession number identifies one submission. The company keeps its CIK across reports; each filing gets its own accession.

Two dates do different jobs. Apple's fiscal year ended September 28, 2024. The filing date is November 1, 2024, when Apple submitted the report. November tells you when the report arrived; September tells you when the reporting period closed. FY2024 is Apple's fiscal year, not January through December.

To find it from EDGAR search, enter Apple, AAPL or the CIK, filter for 10-K, and locate the November 1, 2024 filing. Match the September 28 period end too. A search limited to filings submitted by September would miss this annual report.

Trace the number and its meaning

In Item 8, find Consolidated Statements of Operations, Apple's income statement, on printed page 29. The report's contents link takes you there; your browser's find tool can also search that heading. Use the page number printed in the report, which may differ from a viewer's page count.

Choose the 2024 column and Total net sales, below the separate Products and Services rows. Sales here means revenue. The heading puts this row in millions of US dollars.

From the FY2024 filing, Item 8, printed p.29:

Can you turn 391,035 million into billions and round to one decimal place?

391,035 ÷ 1,000 = $391.035 billion, which rounds to $391.0 billion. This is a display conversion. The card and the filing agree; fewer digits do not mean fewer sales.

One trap sits in the same heading: share counts use thousands, and per-share amounts use dollars. “In millions” does not apply to every number on the page.

Next, find Note 2, Revenue, on printed page 35. Financial-statement notes explain the policies and details behind the totals. This note repeats the sales total, splits it into product categories and services, and explains when Apple counts a sale. The revenue lesson goes deeper into those policies.

That gives you a complete trail from company to filing, heading, row and note. Keep those connections with the number:

With the filing-index link attached, this card lets someone else find exactly the same row. A copied number is useful; a number with its source is checkable.

Check the same year in a later filing

Open Apple's FY2025 10-K, filed October 31, 2025. On printed page 29, choose the middle column: 2024, the year ended September 28. The newest column answers a different year's question.

Reported in the FY2025 filing, Item 8, printed p.29:

The FY2024 sales total is unchanged: $391,035 million in both filings.

The original filing shows what Apple reported then. The later comparison shows how it presents that year in a newer report. Keeping both sources preserves that distinction if a figure changes.

Check the period again when you move to a 10-Q. It can show one quarter of income beside year-to-date cash flow, which runs from the fiscal year's start. The same end date can cover three months on one statement and nine on another.

Use the rest of the report with purpose

Start with the section that answers your question. A 10-K is a reference book, not a front-to-back reading assignment.

• Item 1, Business: What the company sells and how it operates.
• Item 1A, Risk Factors: The uncertainties that could hurt the business or its securities.
• Item 7, MD&A: Management's Discussion and Analysis — why management says results changed.
• Item 8, Statements and notes: The accounts and what sits inside their amounts.

Then look for later 10-Qs and relevant 8-Ks. Most required 8-K disclosures are due within four business days of the triggering event. Some have different deadlines; an 8-K is not a universal clock for all company news.

The proxy statement, commonly filed as DEF 14A, supplies information for shareholder votes, including directors, executive pay and certain ownership disclosures. It is the starting point for studying management and incentives.

For the employee share awards you just examined, start with the financial-statement note; the proxy adds detail on executive incentives.

The SEC sets disclosure requirements and reviews compliance; neither SEC review nor an audit guarantees accuracy. Once you can trace a number, accounting red flags helps you turn unexplained differences into questions worth investigating.

In short

• Choose the filing that answers your question: annual base, interim update or event disclosure.
• The fiscal period tells you when results happened; the filing date tells you when the report arrived.
• A unit conversion can make two different-looking numbers agree.
• Compare the same period in later reports before calling a difference an error.
• Keep the filing, dates, unit, row and note together so anyone can check your number.